- ICEBlock developer sues Bondi, others over Apple censorship pressure
Source: New York Times
“For six months, Apple distributed an app called ICEBlock that allowed users to alert people when they saw Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. But after the Trump administration complained that the app endangered officers, Apple removed it. On Monday, the app’s developer, Joshua Aaron, sued top Trump administration officials, accusing them of pressuring Apple to stifle his free speech and his right to create, distribute and promote ICEBlock. The suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claimed that Attorney General Pam Bondi abused the government’s power when the Justice Department contacted Apple and demanded it remove the app, which she said she had done in a statement to Fox News in October. She said that Apple removed the app after her request.” (12/08/25)
- Peru: Hitmen ambush and kill reporter who covered corruption
Source: CBS News
“Peruvian journalist Fernando Nunez, whose reporting dug into municipal corruption cases, was shot and killed by hitmen while returning from an assignment, Peru’s National Association of Journalists (ANP) said Sunday. Nunez, a reporter for the digital outlet Kamila TV, ‘was attacked by hitmen while riding a motorcycle with his brother’ on Saturday, the ANP said in a statement on social media. Nunez died instantly and his brother was in critical condition. Nunez is the third journalist killed by organized crime in Peru in 2025, following the slayings of journalists Gaston Medina and Raul Celis.” (12/08/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hitmen-kill-reporter-covered-corruption-peru-journalist-group/
- Trump Says He’ll Sign Executive Order Curbing State AI Rules
Source: Bloomberg
“President Donald Trump said he would approve an executive order this week to establish ‘ONE RULE’ on artificial intelligence regulation and limit state-level policies regulating the technology. ‘I will be doing a ONE RULE Executive Order this week. You can’t expect a company to get 50 Approvals every time they want to do something,’ Trump posted on social media Monday. The forthcoming order marks the latest bid by Trump to put his imprint on policy for AI, a technology that is rapidly developing and seen increasing adoption by business, government and the public.” (12/08/25)
- NATO Is a Menace, Not a Benefit, to America
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Galen Carpenter“Since its creation in 1949, NATO has been the keystone of U.S. foreign policy in Europe. Indeed, the alliance has been the most important feature of Washington’s overall strategy of global primacy. America’s political and policy elites have embraced two key assumptions and continue to do so. One is that NATO is essential to the peace and security of the entire transatlantic region and will remain so for the indefinite future. The other sacred assumption is that the alliance is highly beneficial to America’s own core security and economic interests. Whatever validity those assumptions may have had at one time, they are dangerously obsolete today. The toxic, militaristic views toward Russia that too many European leaders are adopting have made NATO into a snare that could entangle the United States in a large-scale war with ominous nuclear implications.” (12/08/25)
- Trump’s Affordability Bombast Won’t Solve his Real Economic Problems
Source: JimBovard.com
by James Bovard“‘Affordability’ epitomizes how Trump is floundering on what had been one of his strongest issues. A Gallup survey found that only 36% of Americans approve of Trump’s economic performance while a Fox News poll found that 76% of voters disapprove of Trump’s economy — an even worse rating than Joe Biden scored at the end of his presidency. The White House acts as if more bluster can solve the problem. But is the Trump administration now targeting its economic message solely to people who failed high-school mathematics? On Truth Social last month, Trump proclaimed, ‘DRUG PRICES ARE FALLING AT LEVELS NEVER SEEN BEFORE, 500%, 600%, 700%, and more.’ Actually, drug prices cannot fall more than 100% unless people are getting paid to swallow the durn free pills. But it’s worse than that. Prescription-drug prices have in fact increased roughly 2% this year, according to federal data.” (12/08/25)
- Bill of Rights Day: How Your Rights Keep Authoritarianism in Check
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille“In these fraught political times when our political choices are largely limited to authoritarian Republicans and totalitarian Democrats and federal agencies vie for opportunities to violate individual rights, it’s difficult to feel anything other than contempt for government. It’s worth remembering, though, that the current mess isn’t a good representation of the Founding ideals of our republic. In particular, consider the protections for liberty embodied in the Bill of Rights, which is celebrated every December 15.” (12/08/25)
https://reason.com/2025/12/08/bill-of-rights-day-how-your-rights-keep-authoritarianism-in-check/
- Hashtag Handcuffs: The Global Rise of Online Speech Policing
Source: The Daily Economy
by Julian Adorney“In one sense, the global crackdown on online speech is understandable. Most people support freedom of speech, but balance this support with their support of other priorities, such as their desire to cultivate a culture that respects the rights and dignity of minorities. In the last decade, social media has shocked many of us with evidence of how heinous the views of some of our fellow citizens are. It’s understandable that someone might see a post on X with thousands of likes that implies that black Americans are genetically inferior to white Americans, and conclude that the government ought to do something to punish this kind of hateful speech. But for all that the impulse to censor can be noble-hearted, it’s also wrong-headed. In practice, attempts to punish so-called hate speech run into several big problems.” (12/08/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/hashtag-handcuffs-the-global-rise-of-online-speech-policing/
- The Combat Cowardice Ribbon
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“The U.S. Navy has a Combat Action Ribbon (CAR) that is comparable to the Combat Infantry Badge (CIB) in the army. These are awarded to military personnel who engage in combat during wartime. Does the U.S. Navy plan on handing out the CAR to all the Navy personnel who have participated in the attacks on those small boats on the high seas near Venezuela, which have resulted in the killings of more than 80 people? Given President Trump’s and the Pentagon’s ‘we-are-at-war’ assertion, I don’t see why they wouldn’t hand out that combat ribbon. But if I were one of those Navy personnel, I’d be embarrassed to wear that ‘combat’ ribbon on my uniform. … In fact, I think the Navy should issue a brand new ribbon — the Combat Cowardice Ribbon — to all the Navy personnel who have participated in those drug-war killings.” (12/08/25)
- Immigration Gone Wild
Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson“It is hard now even for Democrats to defend illegal [sic] immigration, given that the Biden administration allowed in more than 10 million entrants. Among them were an estimated 500,000 criminals. No one believes that was wise or should ever be repeated. Worse, the message went out that there would be few, if any, deportations* and no real ICE kinetic activity beyond the border. The world’s poor, sick, both law-abiding and criminal, young and old, understood that anyone could now enter the U.S. at will. Deterrence and legality were lost. In its place, the message went out that if it was permissible to cross the border unlawfully [sic], then, by extension, it would be seen as equally fine to reside illegally [sic] as well, and perhaps further to ignore laws, on the theory that the host had sanctioned all such exemptions.” [editor’s note: * Trump still hasn’t caught up with Biden’s deportation numbers. Or Obama’s – TLK] (12/08/25)
- Deporting Democracy, Importing Authoritarian Logic
Source: Independent Institute
by Abigail R Hall & Patrik Ward“As tensions between Washington and Caracas intensify, over 250,000 Venezuelans living legally in the United States are set to lose their Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a temporary immigration status that allows individuals from certain countries to live and work in the United States if their home country is considered unsafe. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has framed keeping these Venezuelans in the country as ‘contrary to national interest.’ In reality, revoking TPS is not sound policy; it is bad economics aligned with worse ethics. This policy does nothing to help the American public. It does, however, endanger thousands of people who fled an erratic authoritarian regime and lays bare the overwhelming hypocrisy coming from Washington.” (12/08/25)
https://www.independent.org/article/2025/12/08/deporting-democracy-importing-authoritarian-logic/
- The Seven Deadly Economic Sins
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Mark Thornton“The seven deadly sins of Christianity are serious ‘capital’ sins because they spawn sinful behavior in general. The seven economic sins of economic policy destroy capital, undermine wage rates, and lower the standard of living. They actually kill people via poverty, malnutrition, suicide, and the like.” (12/08/25)
- History Shows Why the US Must Leave Venezuela Alone
Source: TomDispatch
by Eric Ross“In recent months, the Trump administration has escalated a decades-long campaign against the Venezuelan government and people. The renewed, intensifying threats of regime change, justified through false or inflated claims that Nicolás Maduro, its president, is directing narco-terrorism against the United States, serve as a convenient pretext for deeper and more direct intervention. A recent wave of extrajudicial killings at sea, the directing of the CIA to launch covert ops inside Venezuela, the surge of US troops into the Caribbean, the reopening of a long-shuttered naval base in Puerto Rico, and the deployment of the aircraft carrier the USS Gerald Ford in the region represent striking but not surprising developments. These are little more than the latest expression of an ideological project through which Washington has long sought to shape the hemisphere in ways that would entrench US power further and protect the profits of Western multinationals.” (12/07/25)
- Herodotus the Storyteller
Source: Law & Liberty
by Matthew K Reising“We often forget ourselves in this modern age, and one can’t help but feel that the amnesia is by design. For better or worse, the digital revolution has turned attention into a challenge and a commodity. Because of social media’s predominance, brain rot and doomscrolling are now part of everyday vernacular. Moreover, AI has raised serious questions about the nature of human consciousness, and distress about disinformation and polarization in the political sphere is rampant. Given these woes, Emily Katz Anhalt’s latest book, Ancient Wisdom for Polarized Times, hopes to remind us what it is to be human by enlisting an unlikely ally: the fifth-century BC historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus.” (12/08/25)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/herodotus-the-storyteller/
- Trump Targets Car Affordability With Regulatory Reform
Source: Town Hall
by EJ Antoni, Ph.D.“President Trump put the affordability crisis squarely in his sights this week when he announced a major regulatory reform that will save American families billions of dollars on vehicles in the coming years. By rolling back onerous overreach from the Biden administration, Mr. Trump is ensuring consumers will be able to buy the cars and trucks they want, and at lower prices. The regulation concerned here is the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, which are promulgated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. CAFE standards regulate fuel economy for cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks. Under Biden, these standards were raised to completely unreasonable levels, forcing costly changes for consumers and automakers alike. The Biden-era regulation would’ve required automakers to meet a fleet average of more than 50 miles per gallon for cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks in model year 2031, which is just a few years away.” (12/08/25)
- Reason Roundtable, 12/08/25
- Conflicts of Interest, episode 858
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Will Israel Annex the West Bank?” (12/08/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-858-will-israel-annex-the-west-bank/
- Rising, 12/08/25
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave delivers his radar on Rep. Ilhan Omar(D-Minn.) speaking out regarding the massive welfare fraud that occurred in Minnesota under the watch of Governor Tim Walz.” (12/08/25)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5638533-rising-december-8-2025/